Kate Krauss Promoted to Executive Director & COO

Dear Friends, 

While many of you have heard about our growing leadership team at Fair Food Network, I am delighted to announce that Kate Krauss has become Fair Food Network’s first Executive Director & Chief Operating Officer working in continued partnership with myself as Founder and CEO. 

Kate has been with Fair Food Network for more than four years as our inaugural Chief Operating Officer and has shown outstanding leadership in this role. During her time here, Fair Food Network has grown, more than doubling our annual budget and staff, and most importantly, advancing our mission of growing community health and wealth through food. 

Kate brings more than twenty years of experience in nonprofit management, development, and communications. She came to Fair Food Network after previous leadership roles at Slow Food USA. She also brings fundraising skills honed in her role leading development efforts for The Nature Conservancy’s climate change initiative. Finally, she is exceptionally talented with internal organizational management and is a strong organizational representative.

Ten years ago, I started Fair Food Network with an entrepreneurial spirit and an unwavering commitment to the idea that harnessing the power of food could transform the health and wealth of even our most vulnerable communities. We started small, with a pilot in Detroit, bringing the then new idea of healthy food incentives to Michigan. But our vision has been never bounded. And over the years, our work and role in the field has evolved and grown while staying grounded in this founding vision. 

Kate’s breadth of experience and leadership will help guide the Fair Food Network’s next chapter. And our future has never looked brighter. 

We are on the precipice of major growth and expansion. With just announced support from the USDA, we are on the verge of truly scaling our SNAP incentive program Double Up Food Bucks in Michigan–bringing this proven model to every county in the state while working to reach at least a third of Michigan SNAP households over the next four years.

We’ve also established a national footprint. Today, we partner with Double Up partners in more than two dozen states. And with another new USDA award, we are now the designated technical assistance and training hub serving a large and growing field of SNAP incentive practitioners from across the nation. We have also brought on new leadership for our Fair Food Fund and are expanding our work and reach in impact investing supporting good food entrepreneurs. 

Undergirding all of these accomplishments is a strong, bright, and growing team that inspires me daily.

Kate and I are committed to ensuring that Fair Food Network remains a leading, durable organization in the good food movement nationally. And that together with our partners, we continue to push the boundaries and demonstrate what’s possible when we harness the full power and potential of food to transform communities for good. 

I continue to feel deeply blessed working with staff and partners who demonstrate such a strong commitment to ensuring healthy and resilient futures for all communities.

As Fair Food Network is on the cusp of further growth, I couldn’t be more grateful to start our organization’s next chapter with Kate joining me at the helm, and incredible partners and team by our side. 

Onward, 

Oran